


Guardianship

by roselightsaber



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, gay crystal space dads
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-22
Updated: 2016-12-22
Packaged: 2018-09-11 05:58:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8957257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roselightsaber/pseuds/roselightsaber
Summary: Chirrut wanders. Baze follows.





	1. Chapter 1

Baze was starting to panic. Keep an eye on Chirrut didn’t seem like such a difficult assignment on the face of it. The kid seemed to mainly sit around meditating and contemplating and feeling and doing all the things Baze wasn’t good at–which is how he ended up with this job to begin with. Besides, he’s blind–how far could he get?

The answer, it turned out, was awfully deep into the bowels of the city, into the complex, mostly-abandoned spiderweb of catacombs running between the temple and nearby Kyber mines. It was nowhere to tread without a spot-on locator and maybe a stunner to boot, much less without sight and without a clue, two things Chirrut seemed to be seriously lacking. Baze stopped to catch his breath, shaking his head. What if there was a cave in? Shyraks? Mynocks? Or worse–someone looking for black market crystals? Baze didn’t speak of his doubts aloud, but his faith in the Force had never been shakier than while considering that it–and maybe a staff–were currently all that was protecting his charge from…well, from all the terrifying things he was imagining.

“Chirrut? Chirrut?! Where are you?”

“I don’t know!”

Hearing a response at last was hardly a relief. “You don’t know?!” Baze had been hurrying toward him in a frenzy, picturing some cartoonishly pitiful lost child, and then–

“You better come here and tell me! I can’t see a thing!” 

“You can’t–” He paused mid-stride. There was Chirrut, grinning ear to ear, unharmed (though Baze had the passing thought to change that). “You can’t see, huh…” He laughed in spite of himself. “What is wrong with you?”

“I’m blind,” Chirrut answered without missing a beat, whirling on his heel and gesturing for Baze to follow. Baze did just that before he could think better of it, before he even realized he was doing it. “Come on, I want to show you something.”

“You know, you could have just said that before instead of taking off.”

“Would you have followed me?”

“I–well, probably not,” He admitted. “Hey–” He might have his doubts about the Force, but even Baze had to admit that it couldn’t have been only his own reflexes that sent his arm snapping out to snag Chirrut’s hand and pull him safely to his side as a part of the cave wall suddenly broke free.

“Huh.” Chirrut looked only dimly surprised and not half as thankful as Baze thought appropriate. “I guess it’s a good thing you did after all.”

“That’s a bit of an understatement,” He grumbled, still hanging onto Chirrut’s hand, though now Baze was the one being led around. “Where are we going?”

“Once again, my friend,” He answered with a faint chuckle. “You would know that better than I would. But–this is what I wanted to show you.”

He tugged Baze along behind him through a winding corridor, the taller man just barely ducking the low cave ceiling in time to not hit his head as the path widened into an open cavern. Baze wanted to be annoyed–well, he was annoyed, but it was fading fast. “Kyber crystals…” More than he’d ever seen all together, uncut and unpolished and gleaming in the dim light from Baze’s lantern. “I didn’t know there was a vein like this so close.”

“This is what we’re here for, right?” He let go of Baze’s hand to walk over to the crystal formations jutting from the far wall. He held a hand out, not quite touching the stone surface, but feeling the energy around them. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

“How can you tell?”

“I don’t need to see them. How do you think I found this place?”

Baze had always wanted to believe like Chirrut did, but he’d never quite had the kind of faith he felt he was supposed to. Maybe because he thought he was supposed to. But for the first time in a long time, the Force felt overwhelmingly strong to Baze. “It’s what we’re here for,” He belatedly agreed. “So we should protect it.”

Chirrut takes a seat cross-legged on the cavern floor, fingers ghosting over a spiny cluster of crystals exploding from the wall over his shoulder. “We are Guardians, aren’t we?”

Certainly that was the title they’d been handed, but for the first time, Baze felt he truly had something to guard. He sat next to Chirrut and closed his eyes, hoping to feel the energy of the crystals as the other did, no need for sight. “It would probably be safest if no one else knows they’re here.”

“Is the honorable guardian Baze Malbus suggesting we keep a massive cluster of Kyber crystals a secret?”

Neither needed to see the other to know they both smiled conspiratorially. Sure, the elders were bound to notice eventually. Chirrut was not the only guardian with such sharp senses–he was just the one most likely to follow those senses down into total darkness just for fun. “For safety,” Baze insisted. “It’s a hidden supply. It might be valuable in an emergency.”

“And we can always come down here and check on it.”

“To guard it.”

“That’s what we’re here for.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A fluffy follow up.

The hidden kyber cave becomes their own hideaway, the perfect place to shirk responsibilities for a while–almost exclusively at Chirrut’s urging. But Chirrut’s will is more likely to move Baze’s action than even his own, and time after time, he follows him into the dark, insisting on leading the way with the help of a lantern though Chirrut does just as well on his own in the pitch blackness. It’s not a wonder that someone like Chirrut, who has worked so hard to sharpen his senses, is quickly overwhelmed by them from time to time. Not when it counts, usually; his drive to protect the temple and to do his duty takes over in crisis and he becomes a being of pure action, unbound to something as material as the physical senses. He makes Baze _believe_ , more strongly than he ever thought possible, in the Force and in his friend’s own ability.

But it’s days like today–long, too-hot, too-dry meandering days of near-isolation that do him in. Suddenly the man who can disarm someone twice his size with nothing more than a staff and the element of surprise seems to be trapped in a prison of his own perceptiveness. His clothes are itchy and sticking. Footfalls on stone seem like thunder; the vibrations of the Force that are usually so comforting are jumbled, transmission static he can’t read. And on these days, their secret place is his solace, and though the other man doesn’t quite realize it, Baze is his solace, too.

He convinces him to follow him down in the cavern with the promise that it’ll be nice and cool, a break from the blazing sun and the demands of the temple elders. Just a break, he insists, and though he knows full well that no amount of words themselves will move Baze, a well-placed smile and his most playful tone seem to be extraordinarily effective. With a careful look around, Baze takes his hand and they descend into the depths of the temple, and then into the underground world that they’ve both memorized by now. Chirrut’s mind is wandering, though, and he stumbles, earning him a charmingly grouchy admonition to be more careful, to stay close. Of course, sometimes he works up a little falter here and there just to be sure his companion is paying attention…so perhaps his mind hasn’t wandered too far.

The other man is quiet, as always, and it’s exactly what Chirrut needs now. There’s nothing to hear but Baze’s breathing and a distant drip of water. The energy of the cave is familiar and peaceful, and though their final destination is vibrant with the Force, the voice of the crystals is nothing like the bustling world above. It sings in a soft harmony with Chirrut’s mind, soothingly, leaving no room for the feeling of being overloaded. He takes his usual seat against a stone wall rippling with crystals and pats the spot next to him for his dutiful companion.

When Baze sits, still peacefully soft to Chirrut’s ears and his Force senses, the younger reaches across his torso to the last source of buzzing energy that had followed them into the cave–Baze’s lantern. “Turn that off,” He orders matter-of-factly. “I can hear it.”

“Really?” Baze thinks briefly about testing him, pretending he’s flipped the switch, but thinks better of it. “Come on, I can’t see if I turn it off.”

“Ah, what a tragedy that would be…”

“I’m not _used_ to it.” He rolls his eyes as Chirrut just laughs, but clicks the lantern off and lets the darkness wash over him. “Happy?”

“Most of the time,” He answers, already leaning against Baze’s shoulder. That, too, has become part of the ritual. Their friendship, however unorthodox, had already earned them the critical eye of the elders who sought to discourage attachments. Closeness like this was safer kept out of sight–and though neither admitted it, both men enjoyed keeping those moments between them, something special, something called for at these moments. Chirrut lifts a hand to Baze’s cheek and sweeps upward gently to verify his eyes were closed. “I want you to see this place like I do.”

“You’re on the right track,” He says in his gruff way, accidentally-on-purpose leaning into the touch “I can’t see anything.”

“That’s the point,” Chirrut laughs. “Reach out into the Force. This place has such power, I know you feel it.”

“I feel like taking a nap.”

“That is also acceptable. Albeit not really what I had in mind.” Before he knows it, Baze is shifting closer, and Chirrut is surprised by a move for the first time in his life. He feels the other man stretch out and rest his head in Chirrut’s lap, and Chirrut doesn’t need to see his expression to know that there is one extremely self-satisfied smile on his face. “…Comfortable?”

“Very comfortable.”

Chirrut cups his cheek again, then slides both hands into his hair. This place always has a special kind of peacefulness about it, but Chirrut has never felt more relaxed, his mind more clear, than hearing Baze sigh happily at his touch. “I still want you to feel what I do.”

“I think I do,” He answers after a moment, taking Chirrut by surprise again. “It’s easy to focus here. Feels good.”

Chirrut chuckles softly, fingers massaging Baze’s scalp. “Are you sure that’s the Force you’re feeling?”

Baze laughs, a deep rumble that blends just so with the voice of the crystals. “If it’s the same, does it matter?”

“If you’d been so eager to propose these theological ideas during our training, the elders might like you more.” Baze doesn’t answer, just leans up slightly to cup Chirrut’s face in both hands and guide him into a kiss, before settling back into comfortable silence, the perfect stillness of the moment and their secret place. 


End file.
